North Atlantic Upper Ocean Temperature Profiles from 1969

6900837 records temperature-depth profiles from five vessels in the North Atlantic Ocean between February and July 1969. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration processed the data into the NODC standard C128 format for mechanical bathythermograph (MBT) observations. Each profile provides paired temperature and depth measurements at 5-meter intervals down to a maximum of approximately 285 meters.

Use Cases

• Analyzing the seasonal development of the upper ocean thermal structure in the North Atlantic during spring and summer 1969.
• Studying temperature gradients and mixed layer depth using the uniform 5-meter interval depth measurements.
• Correlating cruise-specific ocean conditions with vessel position, date, and time metadata for each observation.
• Providing historical baseline data for climate change studies on ocean surface warming.

Strengths

• Data is standardized to the NODC C128 format, ensuring consistent structure for analysis.
• Provides a focused temporal snapshot from five research vessels over a nearly five-month period in 1969.
• Each observation includes associated cruise, date, position, and time metadata for contextual analysis.

Limitations

• The mechanical bathythermograph instrument limits observations to a maximum depth of approximately 285 meters, capturing only the upper ocean.
• Exact row counts, column names, and dataset size are not provided by any source.
• A conflict exists in the 'last updated' metadata between platforms (2026-04-01 on datagov vs. 1969-07 21 on nasa_earthdata).

Provenance

Source

National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Department of Commerce

Collection Method

Mechanical bathythermograph (MBT) instrument measurements processed by NODC to the C128 format.

Time Range

1969-02-25 to 1969-07-21

Freshness

2026-04-01 15:30:06.861991

Geography

North Atlantic Ocean